The subject matter disclosed herein relates to mobility devices for the blind and specifically to mobility devices for blind toddlers. Vision is the unifying sense for learning. Vision is also the sense that provides instant information about the presence of danger. Vision enables the anticipation and avoidance of dangerous situations. When toddlers with visual impairments become fearful of moving because they cannot anticipate even small dangers that lie ahead, they avoid moving and exploring on their own contributing to global developmental delays.
Developmentally, the behavior of typically developing toddlers is to reject constant hand-holding and to seek continuous movement and engagement in their environment. The hypothesis is that the absence of age-appropriate mobility tool options for toddlers with visual impairments interferes with these developmental processes and contributes to the widely identified habitual, global developmental delays in concepts as well as language, social and motor skills in learners who are congenitally visually impaired.
The educational implications of congenital visual impairment are profound and far ranging. Toddlers who are congenitally visually impaired have difficulty acquiring concepts, as they have fewer natural learning experiences because they are not able to observe objects and interactions from afar. Additionally they lack safe mobility to confidently move closer to engage with objects and others.
Current attempts to teach toddlers to maintain hand contact on a wall, on a push toy or holding a guide's hand. While the ability of toddlers to maintain a consistent grasp on a device has not been studied, the negative outcomes of unguided walking in toddlers with visual impairments have been well documented and include postural changes, such as head drop, abdominal protuberance, lordosis, and gait problems such as wide-based, out-toeing, hesitant and shuffling, or propulsive and unsteady gait. Although toddlers with visual impairments have been shown to be able to grasp hand-held mobility tools and toys, short attention span and immature motor skills of toddlers mean employing a hand-held mobility devices for self-protection when walking unguided is developmentally difficult.
It would be desirable to provide a specialized mobility device that will make it possible for toddlers with visual impairments to move safely and explore for learning. Such a mobility device would mitigate or eliminate these developmental delays. Unfortunately, no such device has been developed that has proven to be satisfactory. The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.